Rome: Elina Svitolina underlined her status as a top favourite for the French Open by sweeping Simona Halep aside 6-0, 6-4 to successfully defend her Italian Open crown on Sunday.
In a repeat of last year's final at the Foro Italico, Ukrainian Svitolina, seeded fourth, was up against Halep a day after the Romanian top seed had ousted Russian Maria Sharapova.
But Halep's hopes of overturning last year's defeat to the 23-year-old Svitolina quickly evaporated in a completely one-sided encounter that saw the Romanian fail to produce a real challenge.
Svitolina has now successfully defended three tournament titles in her career and has won her last eight finals.